


There's This Secret Escape Plan I've Got

by whatstheproblembaby



Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:27:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25869661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatstheproblembaby/pseuds/whatstheproblembaby
Summary: Katherine's gone radio silent after she told the boys she was going to tell her dad about their relationship. Jack and Davey make a plan.
Relationships: David Jacobs/Jack Kelly/Katherine Plumber
Comments: 8
Kudos: 33





	There's This Secret Escape Plan I've Got

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote most of this at work today. Oops?

Jack and Davey had a plan.

Well, most of a plan.

"It's been almost a week!" Jack said, not for the first time. He was flat on his back on his mattress, but he wouldn't exactly describe himself as 'relaxed.' "When has Ace ever gone more than about three hours without checking her phone?"

"There was that time when she was on deadline and locked herself in the newsroom to get her article done. I don't think she ate anything but Red Bull and KitKats for like two days," Davey pointed out.

"Yes, but we still knew where she was!" Jack fought to bring his voice down an octave. "She gave us a warning when that happened. I'm worried, Dave."

"Me too," Davey sighed down the phone line. "I keep rereading that last text she sent us-"

"And panicking that Joe might've tried to do something about it?" Jack didn't even need to pull up his texts. He'd read Kath's last message enough that he had it memorized.

_Alright, I'm doing it. I'm going to tell my father about us tonight. If I'm going to blow his mind anyways…_

"What do you think she meant by 'blow his mind'?" Davey asked, also not for the first time. Jack was aware that their phone calls had been a bit repetitive over the last six days, but he had bigger concerns on his mind than fresh topics of conversation with his boyfriend.

Such as the welfare of their missing girlfriend.

"I don't know, Davey. Maybe she tanked a final?"

There was silence on the other end of the call.

"Okay, yes, I heard how stupid that sounded when I said it," Jack said. "I could also hear you rolling your eyes at me, smartass."

"You know I love you."

"I do. And I know what we have to do now." Jack pushed himself up to sit with his legs off the side of his bed.

"Oh, God, do I want to know?" Davey moaned.

"We have to go to Kath's house. I know Joe may not like it-"

" _May_ not?"

"But we have to find out if she's even there. Joe's got more money and influence than God. If she told him about us and he didn't like it, there are places he could send her that would lock her up forever, even if she is legally an adult."

"So what, we're just going to knock on the front door and ask to see her? I'm sure _that_ couldn't go wrong." Davey's voice was a little muffled - Jack suspected he was pinching the bridge of his nose like he usually did when stressed.

"Of course not," Jack said. "We're going to go up the fire escape."

It was quiet for a moment before Davey blew out a long breath. "I really hate this plan, but you're right. We're not going to fix anything by sitting here speculating and worrying. When did you want to go?"

"Now. Dress in something dark and meet me outside Jacobi's." Davey started to speak, but Jack cut him off. "If I'm right and he's planning on shipping Katherine off somewhere, he's gonna do it sooner rather than later. We've got to go while there's still a chance we can find her."

"Give me enough time to tell Ma we might have a guest tonight. If we get her out, she's gotta have somewhere to go, and even Joe Pulitzer would think twice about facing down a furious Esther Jacobs."

"Make it two. _When_ we get her out, I don't think I'm going to want to be away from either of you tonight."

"I admire your confidence. See you in a few."  
_______

Katherine had a plan.

Now she just had to figure out how to execute it.

"If I had my _phone,_ " she moaned quietly to herself, not for the first time. "I never should have let Dad take the landline out of my room. Not that he would've been stupid enough to leave the phone in here while I'm on lockdown...."

She paced the length of the floor as she made sure she had all the details of her plan worked out. Given the amount of time she had spent doing exactly that for the past six days, she was amazed there wasn't a large oval treadmark wearing down the plush of her area rug.

"I just have to get out," she said, concentrating hard. "Once I get out, I know how to stay out. I have everything I need. But how do I _get out?_ "

She completed a lap.

"Well, I know how to get out," she admitted, looking out her window to the fire escape landing beyond. "It might be a little rickety, but it'll get me down to the street. But if Jack and Davey don't know where to find me...screw it. I'm getting out tonight. If I can just get to Jacobi's, I can beg to use their phone."

_And then beg my boys to listen to me._

Once her pacing brought her close enough, Kath plopped down on her bed, right next to the duffel bag she'd packed two days ago. The zipper fought her a little as she opened it up, checking its contents yet again.

"Spare clothing, my charger, my toiletries," she listed off as she dug through the bag, trying not to get anything too out of place. "The paperwork from school and the clinic, _plus_ my flash drive with the backups and my portfolio, and my Kindle. Oh, and Beatrice!"

She snagged her stuffed penguin from the far side of her bed and tucked it inside her bag. Most of her stuff might have to be left behind in her daring escape, but Katherine would be damned before she'd let her father hang onto her favorite object from her childhood.

"Now make your move, Katherine," she whispered, psyching herself up for what she had to do next. "You can do this."

Katherine crept to her door, listening as best she could through the thick wood for the sound of footsteps in the hallway. She _thought_ her family should all be downstairs at the dinner party her mother was throwing, but she couldn't be too careful. One false move, and she would destroy all the complacency she'd been building up in her father over the past few days.

No one was in the hall when she finally eased the door open. Kath breathed a soft sigh of relief, then speed-walked down to her father's study, grateful that her parents had laid down thick carpet runners that muffled both her footsteps and the creak of the floorboards. She used a pin from her hair to jimmy the lock open and grabbed her laptop off her father's massive oak desk, sparing a quick, longing glance toward her phone before hustling back out the door toward her room. Much as Kath wanted to be able to call her boyfriends and start explaining, she knew that Joe would use the tracking capabilities to hunt her down the second he saw she was gone. At least she could get her photos and documents off her laptop before ditching it later.

Katherine had almost made back to her room when a voice from behind her made her freeze in her tracks.

"Miss Katherine?"

"Janie," Katherine replied quietly. "Please don't-"

"Are you finally getting out of here?" Janie whispered back eagerly. "Everyone else is downstairs at the party. Mrs. Kate sent me back up here for her fan - she says it's too damned hot in the dining room. They should be occupied for hours yet."

"Thank God," Katherine said, letting her voice rise closer to a normal volume. "Then yes, I'm getting out of here tonight. I just had to get my laptop out of my father's office first."

"I'd say to be careful, but you and I both know he can barely open his own email account, much less put a trace on anyone else's," Janie said with a snort. "Go. I'll tell everyone tomorrow morning that you've been sick in the night - that should buy you a little extra time, too."

"You're a saint. I cannot possibly pay you back for this."

"Don't worry about it," Janie said, making a shooing motion with her hands. "I'm almost done with school now, and I've got a foot in the door at DVF. Wear one of my pieces the next time you can be seen in public, and we'll call it even."

"If I get out, I'll wear your pieces exclusively for the rest of my life," Katherine said, easing her door open. "I'll try to get you my new number once I can get a phone again!"

Kath saw Janie continue on down the hall as she closed her door and threw her laptop in her duffel bag. She spared one last glance around her bedroom to be absolutely sure she hadn't forgotten anything else, then carefully opened her window and felt her way onto the fire escape.

"One step at a time," she muttered.

She didn't think to look down as she began her descent.  
_______

Davey hated the plan.

He knew he made the better lookout, dressed in his clean-cut black North Face and dark jeans, but he still felt a little abandoned as he waited in the alley between the Pulitzer brownstone and the empty house for sale next door.

"Be careful," he called, as loudly as he dared.

Jack scoffed as he approached the fire escape. "I'm always careful, Dave."

Davey repressed the urge to ask Jack what exactly he defined as careful as Jack began scaling the small iron staircase. He looked away for a moment to see if anyone was arriving late to the party the Pulitzers were apparently having that evening, then whipped his head back toward the fire escape when he heard two voices cry "OUCH!" in unison.

"Katherine?"

"Jack?"

"What are you _doing_ here?"

"What are _you_ doing here?"

"I realize you were both theater geeks in high school, but if you could save the mirroring game for when we don't have an almost one hundred percent chance of getting caught by Kath's father!" Davey whisper-shouted. He had taken a few quick steps closer to the foot of the fire escape when his partners had first started speaking, but he was loathe to get too far out of view of the front door, just in case.

"Just because you stage managed more than you acted doesn't mean you weren't also a theater geek, Davey!" Katherine replied, but she and Jack scurried down the fire escape all the same.

When they got close enough to where he was standing, Davey yanked the two of them into a fierce, fast hug.

"Oh God. Oh my God," he muttered, relief shuddering through his body. On his left side, he felt Katherine shaking against him, while at his right, Jack tightened his grip around their waists. "You're okay. We're all okay."

"Can we go be okay somewhere else?" Katherine said. When she looked up at Davey, tears were shining in her eyes. "I don't think my father will notice us out here, but I can feel my adrenaline crashing."

Jack stole the duffel bag Kath had hooked around her shoulder and slid it over his own. "Let's go. We can talk on the way back to Davey's. Mrs. J knows you're coming."

He led the way out of the alley, Kath following and Davey bringing up the rear. Once they were back on the sidewalk and far enough away from the Pulitzer house, Davey slid his arm over Kath’s shoulders.

“Only you would already be jailbreaking yourself the night we finally got ourselves together to come rescue you,” he said, snickering softly.

“I’m amazed you even came,” Katherine replied, staring up at him with those shining eyes. “I don’t know what _I_ said to you this week, but-”

“What you said to us this week?” Jack interrupted, incredulous. “That’s a big fat nothing, Ace. Dave and I were going out of our goddamn minds.”

“What?” Kath said, stopping dead. “But my father said...wow, he’s really upped his psychological warfare game.”

“Expand and explain,” Davey said seriously.

“It was a mistake to make you watch _Derry Girls_ with us,” Jack muttered, earning himself a swat from both Davey and Katherine before she continued on.

“When my father took my phone, he used Face ID to unlock it and said he was going to keep it open so he could text you two as me and say horrible things. I was so afraid that by the time I even got out, he would have turned you two so far against me that he’d find me and send me off to some institution before I could get a phone and convince you I needed help.”

“One: never,” Davey said, scooping Kath back into his arms. When he felt Jack plaster himself along Katherine’s back, he opened his grip just enough to include Jack in the hug, too. “Two: that almost would have been preferable. We thought your father might have _already_ sent you off somewhere and that our word wouldn’t be enough to get you out.”

“Luckily, I prepared for that,” Katherine said, peeling back enough to grin mischievously in Davey’s face. “Don’t lose my bag, Jack, because it has my insurance policy.”

“Oh, well, there go my plans to dump it in the East River,” Jack teased, stepping back so they could continue their trek to the subway. “But uh...what _is_ your plan, Ace? Ours kinda ended at getting you out of that house.”

“Hey, it’s a great step one.”

“If step one is the _only_ step, can you really say that?” Davey asked.

“Plans don’t have to be long to be successful,” Kath said. “And like I said, I’ve got the rest covered. I thought about telling my dad about us right around the time the semester ended, and I knew he’d try to call me unstable. So I went to the clinic on campus and saw Dr. Roosevelt.”

“Did you have to sell an organ just to get an appointment?” Jack asked, incredulous. Davey was just as stunned - Dr. Roosevelt’s reputation was legendary, and he was constantly being brought on various news programs to explain the latest and greatest medical advancements. Getting in to see him was like walking into Buckingham Palace and happening to get an audience with the Queen.

“I know how to throw around the Pulitzer name when I want to,” Katherine said with a sniff. “And when a doctor as respected as Roosevelt gives you a clean bill of health-”

“Even Joe Pulitzer is gonna be hard pressed to have you committed,” Davey finished. “But what if he found the paper copy?”

“I have a backup on my flash drive and one ready to send to you both on a time delay if I don’t stop it by tomorrow evening.”

“You terrify me sometimes,” Jack said. “But what was the other thing you were going to tell him? Davey and I have been obsessing over that last text you sent us for days.”

“You know that my father was bankrolling my tuition based on me ‘behaving myself as a proper Pulitzer woman should,’” she began.

Davey and Jack stopped walking and made simultaneous retching noises. Kath stopped a beat behind them, looking amused.

“Yes, agreed. Anyways, when I realized I wanted to tell him, I knew he would threaten to cut off my tuition...so I started applying for every single merit-based scholarship I could find. And then when I realized I would also need room and board covered, I applied to be an RA, too.”

“And?” Davey asked.

“The Carter Journalism Institute at NYU is very pleased to be offering me a full scholarship, and Third North thinks I would be an excellent RA for the first-year students there.” Katherine was practically squealing as she finished delivering the news. “I still need to figure out how I’m going to buy the books I can’t just rent or find elsewhere, but Joseph Pulitzer is no longer controlling my education!”

Jack scooped Katherine into a hug so tight it swept her feet off the ground and started spinning her around with glee. “Ace! That’s amazing!”

When Jack put her down, Davey immediately seized her and swept her up again. “You’re incredible, you know that?”

“I’m about to be incredibly sick if you two don’t stop spinning me around like I’m the figurine inside of a music box!” Kath said, laughing. Davey squeezed her once more and then let go.

“I know Medda’s always looking for ushers at the theater,” Jack said, grabbing one of Katherine’s hands in his own as they started walking again. Davey quickly grabbed the other, not wanting to be left out of the group. “I’m sure she’d hire you on the spot.”

“Oooh, I’ll have to ask her about that tomorrow. Tonight, I just want to enjoy my newfound freedom with the two handsomest guys I know.”

“You want to ditch us?” Davey teased. “After all we did to bust you out?”

“You’re hilarious, you know that? Medda should hire you to do stand-up.”

“I still have one question, though, Ace,” Jack said before Davey could unleash any more jokes.

“And that is?”

“How many shades of purple did Joe turn when you told him all this?”

“I don’t think I can count that high, Cowboy. It was one of the most beautiful sights I’ve seen in my entire life.”

“Oh, please elaborate. Don’t leave out a single detail.”

Katherine obliged, adding plenty of dramatic pauses and humorous asides. Davey listened closely enough to file away a mental image of Joe’s aghast reaction as a pick-me-up for later, but mostly he drank in the sight of the loves of his life, together and safe and happy. After a week of radio silence on one end and tense conversations on the other, the sound of their laughter was better than any story Katherine could tell.

Well, except for maybe the part where Joe was so bamboozled by Katherine having a PIN set on her phone that he thought he would have to call the bank to get it unlocked.


End file.
